This was the last song mixed for Abbey Road, and it was the last time all four Beatles were in the studio together. It was the result of two unfinished songs woven together. Before they broke up, The Beatles had a lot of partially completed songs, many of which ended up in their solo work.
John Lennon wrote this about Yoko Ono - the couple were married in March 1969, about six months before the Abbey Road album was released. Lennon was experimenting with a heavy blues sound, so the song has few lyrics and long stretches of repeated chords. "Every time I pick up the guitar I sing about Yoko and that's how I'm influenced," Lennon said at the time.
Taken on its own, the lyric is very basic, repeating just a few simple lines like: I want you so bad It's driving me mad This raises the question of whether John Lennon was writing with stunning efficiency or just out of ideas. "I think there are only about 13 words in it," Ken McNab, author of The Last Days of The Beatles, told Songfacts. "Does that mean he is lyrically bankrupt at this point, or has he said exactly what he wants to say in 13 words? There are always two sides to look at this kind of thing." Lennon offered his take when soon after Abbey Road was released, a news magazine show called 24 Hours read the lyrics out loud, taking a derisive tone. Lennon replied: "To me that's a damn sight better lyric than 'Walrus' or 'Eleanor Rigby' because its progression to me. And if I want to write songs with no words or one word... maybe that's Yoko's influence."
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